Aha! Got this thing figured out - human error, as usual. I was using the wrong bin file. My AGP slot is rated for an 8x card, but my card is only 4x. In my confusion I used the wrong bin file - when I used the proper one, the bios updated fine.

trendrat, so your problem was _NOT_ that the program didn't output anything for you, right?Because in the strace output I can see that the program runs and does a successful backup of your current BIOS but that's not what kapral experienced.

Anyhow, great that it is working now for you.kapral, any success so far?